Chapter Twenty-One
Author's Note: I know the last chappie was a little sucky. Just bear with me for a while, cause this one's better, OK?
The sky above was a purple, streaked with the occasional blue. For moment, I wondered whether the birds we had acquired were nocturnal. We were all stumped by the fact that a few birds went to sleep, while others flew. And yet, Placynth's DNA Pinpointer showed that they were one and the same bird.
Placynth had a theory: Perhaps one gender of the bird, male or female, slept at night, while the other gender were nocturnal. The question was: Had we acquired nocturnal or diurnal birds? The only way to know for sure was to morph them.
I concentrated on the bird.
PRROOOMPH! Two wings burst from my back. The skin and bone and muscle of my tail went into my spine, while the only remaining part, the blade, split apart and softened to form tail feathers.
SHWUCK! My arms were sucked back into my body as my torso melded with my lower body. My main eyes were suddenly not seeing very well. I expected to lose my stalk eyes.
But no, instead, my stalks dwindled and grew thinner, but weren't sucked into my scalp. This creature had stalks, it just didn't reveal them. And what made them harder to spot were the huge, red, crest feathers.
Quite soon, I was done. My hearing wasn't very good. My main eyes saw hardly anything.
But my stalks were the real seers. They looked through night as though it was an exceptionally bright day. I have no idea why this is, but it is so.
My wings were marvelous. They flapped so hard and so well, they were barely visible. And I wasn't tired in the least!
We flew swiftly through the night, dodging trees, ducking branches, occasionally swooping up or down to find gaps in the thick vegetation.
After about half an hour of searching, we found Captain Yarx.
But he was not alone.
Captain Yarx was being dragged away by two huge, Blue Band Squadron Hork- Bajir.
[The base is close by,] said Placynth.
He was right; the huge dome surrounded by vertical rectangular watchposts was easily identifiable as a Yeerk base.
[They might have our equipment,] said Elfinorr hopefully.
[Maybe it was destroyed,] said the gollerstre.
[If it was destroyed, what is it that we are doing?] said one of the others.
[I think, first and foremost, we should get Captain Yarx,] Placynth said.
[What's the plan?]
[No plan,] Elfinorr said. [There are just two Blue Banded bladed monsters. We can finish them.]
[We should get cover; we're vulnerable in mid-morph.] pointed out Placynth.
But since the forest was already very thick, we could just land on the spot of land below us and demorph undisturbed.
When I was done, I ran through the trees, looking for Yarx and his captors. I found them sooner than I had expected. I was a little startled.
Let me tell you this: Being startled can make me do very reckless things.
Fwapp!
I nailed one of the Hork-Bajir in his spine! I kept cutting down, slicing through skin and muscle and bone, but mostly bone.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaargh!" he yelled in pain and collapsed.
The other one turned in a flash and before I knew it, I had a horizontal cut across my upper body.
[YAAH!] I yelled.
Fwapp! Fwapp! Fwapp!
Out of my three tail swipes one connected, axing the elite Hork-Bajir in his diaphragm. He staggered back, drooling blood.
Fwapp!
He blocked the blow, but lost his left hand. He used the injured arm's elbow blade to hit me. I now had a cut where a mouth should have been — and now was.
Fwapp! Fwapp!
He dodged both blows lashed at me with his foot, but I leaped out of the way. Then I ran straight at him, swinging my tail. He twisted and I missed, but barely. A strategy formed in my mind.
I was now too close for him to slash at me. So I tackled him with my body and somehow managed to knock him down.
I had paid for it: I had impaled myself on his blade and now had a gash in my chest, but ignoring that, I beheaded the Hork-Bajir.
I swayed on the spot, and turned my stalk eyes back. I saw that Yarx had my equipment attached to his waist. But before I could turn...
TSEEWW!!!
[AAAAARGHH!] A Dracon beam set on medium power burned a hole into my flank. I hit the ground hard, and looked around fast.
I was surrounded. There were Hork-Bajir carrying Dracon beams and Taxxons carrying up to six of the Yeerk copy of Shredders. And one of the Hork- Bajir was extremely huge, easily three heads bigger than the biggest Hork- Bajir present there.
The huge Hork-Bajir stepped forward. He opened his mouth to speak.
"I am Councilor Eleven, assassin."
I simply stared.
There was a rustle behind him and he turned around. When he looked back at me, he was smiling.
"Your friends have joined us, in mid-morph. We caught them, too."
HEY! REVIEW ALREADY!
Author's Note: I know the last chappie was a little sucky. Just bear with me for a while, cause this one's better, OK?
The sky above was a purple, streaked with the occasional blue. For moment, I wondered whether the birds we had acquired were nocturnal. We were all stumped by the fact that a few birds went to sleep, while others flew. And yet, Placynth's DNA Pinpointer showed that they were one and the same bird.
Placynth had a theory: Perhaps one gender of the bird, male or female, slept at night, while the other gender were nocturnal. The question was: Had we acquired nocturnal or diurnal birds? The only way to know for sure was to morph them.
I concentrated on the bird.
PRROOOMPH! Two wings burst from my back. The skin and bone and muscle of my tail went into my spine, while the only remaining part, the blade, split apart and softened to form tail feathers.
SHWUCK! My arms were sucked back into my body as my torso melded with my lower body. My main eyes were suddenly not seeing very well. I expected to lose my stalk eyes.
But no, instead, my stalks dwindled and grew thinner, but weren't sucked into my scalp. This creature had stalks, it just didn't reveal them. And what made them harder to spot were the huge, red, crest feathers.
Quite soon, I was done. My hearing wasn't very good. My main eyes saw hardly anything.
But my stalks were the real seers. They looked through night as though it was an exceptionally bright day. I have no idea why this is, but it is so.
My wings were marvelous. They flapped so hard and so well, they were barely visible. And I wasn't tired in the least!
We flew swiftly through the night, dodging trees, ducking branches, occasionally swooping up or down to find gaps in the thick vegetation.
After about half an hour of searching, we found Captain Yarx.
But he was not alone.
Captain Yarx was being dragged away by two huge, Blue Band Squadron Hork- Bajir.
[The base is close by,] said Placynth.
He was right; the huge dome surrounded by vertical rectangular watchposts was easily identifiable as a Yeerk base.
[They might have our equipment,] said Elfinorr hopefully.
[Maybe it was destroyed,] said the gollerstre.
[If it was destroyed, what is it that we are doing?] said one of the others.
[I think, first and foremost, we should get Captain Yarx,] Placynth said.
[What's the plan?]
[No plan,] Elfinorr said. [There are just two Blue Banded bladed monsters. We can finish them.]
[We should get cover; we're vulnerable in mid-morph.] pointed out Placynth.
But since the forest was already very thick, we could just land on the spot of land below us and demorph undisturbed.
When I was done, I ran through the trees, looking for Yarx and his captors. I found them sooner than I had expected. I was a little startled.
Let me tell you this: Being startled can make me do very reckless things.
Fwapp!
I nailed one of the Hork-Bajir in his spine! I kept cutting down, slicing through skin and muscle and bone, but mostly bone.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaargh!" he yelled in pain and collapsed.
The other one turned in a flash and before I knew it, I had a horizontal cut across my upper body.
[YAAH!] I yelled.
Fwapp! Fwapp! Fwapp!
Out of my three tail swipes one connected, axing the elite Hork-Bajir in his diaphragm. He staggered back, drooling blood.
Fwapp!
He blocked the blow, but lost his left hand. He used the injured arm's elbow blade to hit me. I now had a cut where a mouth should have been — and now was.
Fwapp! Fwapp!
He dodged both blows lashed at me with his foot, but I leaped out of the way. Then I ran straight at him, swinging my tail. He twisted and I missed, but barely. A strategy formed in my mind.
I was now too close for him to slash at me. So I tackled him with my body and somehow managed to knock him down.
I had paid for it: I had impaled myself on his blade and now had a gash in my chest, but ignoring that, I beheaded the Hork-Bajir.
I swayed on the spot, and turned my stalk eyes back. I saw that Yarx had my equipment attached to his waist. But before I could turn...
TSEEWW!!!
[AAAAARGHH!] A Dracon beam set on medium power burned a hole into my flank. I hit the ground hard, and looked around fast.
I was surrounded. There were Hork-Bajir carrying Dracon beams and Taxxons carrying up to six of the Yeerk copy of Shredders. And one of the Hork- Bajir was extremely huge, easily three heads bigger than the biggest Hork- Bajir present there.
The huge Hork-Bajir stepped forward. He opened his mouth to speak.
"I am Councilor Eleven, assassin."
I simply stared.
There was a rustle behind him and he turned around. When he looked back at me, he was smiling.
"Your friends have joined us, in mid-morph. We caught them, too."
HEY! REVIEW ALREADY!